merriweather ....
A lot is going to depend on how much restoration you’re going to be doing and how long the boat will be high and dry…….
Like Ed said stabilize the fuel (especially if the boat will not see water for awhile) Hopefully you have room in the tank to add the stabilizer then add new gas on top of it (the new gas will help to mix things up a bit add distribute the stabilizer hence the remark about having room in the fuel tank)...
Additionally TOPPING OF THE TANK IS VERY IMPORTANT .. otherwise you run a condensation risk and water in you fuel tank....One marina up here will not winterize until the tank is full (trust me you don’t want the marina adding gas… they charge an arm and a leg for simple stuff like this) get the motor running (once the fuel is stabilized ) then disconnect the fuel line from the engine while its running .... This gets most of the gas out of the motor...to avoid it "varnishing" things up....makes starting the boat in the spring a more pleasant experience.
You may want to fog the engine .... but at this point you've only got a few months until the boat gets wet again …so that’s up to you ....again unless the boats going to sit for a long period of time.....You can even take the spark plugs out and squirt some fogging oil into the cylinders and turn the motor over a few times to distribute it...then replace the plugs...
I have in the past (not so much with the current boat) I drain the lower unit oil in the fall then replace with new.... primarily to check its condition and see if it need to go to the shop over the winter for repair.
Most of the above is if its an outboard...inboards have different considerations... especially the cooling system)
Batteries out and throw a charger on them every so often if you wish
Onto sanding......Personally I would wait for prep sanding for painting until right prior to the paint job (within a few weeks at least)....If you prep sand now your opening the surface up to contamination from the environment and poor adhesion for the primer and paint ...Otherwise you may have to re-sand it again to get a good bonding surface..
ASK FELLOWSHIP ABOUT SANDING THE BOAT FOR PREP OF PAINTING as I recall he didn’t have too much fun..
If its rough sanding your doing say from fiberglass repair work… I personally sand it down and put a coat of primer over the newly sanded area to protect it from the weather ...especially the sun (look in some boat yards were the resin was left “raw” it discolors and over time becomes brittle) until the prep sanding occurs..
There are steps to take for preparing the surface even before sanding begins (dewaxing and cleaning the surface so you don’t grind bad stuff into the prepped surface) and steps to make sure the surface is the best for bonding the primer... US Paints (Awlgrip) has a
webpage that has good info on prep work (or you can send for a hard copy of the pamphlet....) Or talk to the Manufactures technical guys about your "little" project ... They are usually quite helpful... [img]images/icons/wink.gif[/img]
Hope this helps [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img]
[ February 03, 2003, 02:00 PM: Message edited by: Scott ]